ARTICLES ABOUT NEGATIVE OUTLOOK BY DATE - PAGE 2

MUMBAI: India Ratings has retained its negative outlook for the retail sector the next fiscal as well with a stable bias, and ruled out revising it to positive near-term. Moderate single-digit revenue growth and operational efficiencies translating into stable margins comparable to levels seen thus far in FY14 will result in marginal improvement in credit profile from FY13 levels for most retailers, which is not strong enough to revise the negative outlook, the rating agency said in its report while retaining its negative outlook.

MUMBAI: Ratings agency India Ratings today maintained a stable to negative outlook on the automobile sector for 2014-15 financial year. The agency expects at base case a 3-8 per cent decline in the passenger vehicle segment which comprises cars, utility and multi-purpose vehicles, while the volume growth in the commercial vehicle ( CV ) segment is likely to post a 6-9 per cent y-o-y decline in domestic volumes in FY15, India Ratings said in its auto outlook released here today.

NEW DELHI: Credit rating agency Fitch has assigned 'BBB-' to Bharti Airtel's euro 250 million bond offering. "Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) B.V's EUR250m 4 per cent senior unsecured notes due 2018 a rating of 'BBB-'," Fitch said in a statement. Yesterday, it raised 250 million euros through the notes. The notes are unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by Bharti Airtel and are therefore rated at the same level as Bharti's foreign-currency senior unsecured rating of 'BBB-', it added.

MUMBAI: Central bankers rarely talk about politics, or provide an economic assessment of the impact of the drama that politicians play. Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan for the second time in a month has raised the issue of how the outcome of general elections is the latest threat to economy. Even though the economic outlook has improved and the uncertainty over the tapering of bond purchases by the US Federal Reserve is behind us, India faces uncertainty as there is little clarity on what the elections will throw up. "In India, a potential additional source of uncertainty is the coming general election," said Rajan in his foreword to the latest Financial Stability Report . "A stable new government would be positive for the economy.

MUMBAI: Rating agency Standard & Poor's today revised upwards the long-term corporate credit ratings of software majors TCS , Infosys and Wipro to 'A' from 'BBB+.' However, it retained the negative outlook on their foreign currency ratings, citing the negative outlook on the sovereign. The agency also raised the local currency ratings of the three companies to 'stable' and removed them from CreditWatch, where they were placed with positive implications on November 26, S&P said in a statement issued from Singapore.

NEW DELHI: Reflecting macroeconomic challenges over the next 12 months, Moody's expects challenges for Indian non-financial corporates to continue in 2014. "India's GDP growth to remain weak at 5.5 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 2015, as elections in mid-2014 will delay reforms needed to revive the economy," Moody's Investors Service said in a report. Companies will also face higher borrowing costs and tight funding conditions with monetary policy likely to remain tight, it said.

Blaming it on the prevailing political uncertainty, the Reserve Bank's tightening measures and an uncomfortable current account deficit figure, among other things, experts are going bearish on the India story. Expressing worriment over the state of Indian economy, Wood, who is a strategist at CLSA, said: "India has to work more on getting its fiscal deficit in check. CPI is higher than WPI, and there's clearly a risk of more rate hikes. So, I think the Indian macro story and credit growth is clearly now slowing in India.

MUMBAI: International rating agency Moody's today maintained its negative outlook on the country's banking sector, citing worries over asset quality and overall economic growth prospects. "The negative outlook reflects our views that economic growth will be weak, banks' asset quality will deteriorate, and profitability will decline because banks need to increase loan loss reserves and will not be able to fully pass on rising funding costs or offset these through loan growth," Moody's Investors Service said in a note.

NEW DELHI: The European business of Tata Steel is showing signs that the recent weaknesses have been stemmed, according to Moody's Investors Service report. "Tata Steel's half year results ended September 30, 2013 demonstrate signs of improvement in its European business, which has been the main driver of recent ratings pressures. The ratings of Tata Steel (TSL Ba3) and Tata Steel UK Holdings (TSUKH B3) both carry negative outlooks," the report said. In its efforts to further "restructure its UK business, TSUKH expects to reduce headcount by around 500 by end of March 2014," it added.

NEW DELHI: Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has put India's next government on notice, warning that it will downgrade the country's sovereign rating to speculative grade within a year if it's seen as being incapable of reversing India's declining growth trajectory. In a reprieve to the current government, under which growth fell to a decade-low 5% last year and may slide further in the current year, S&P said it's likely to review the country's rating only after the next general elections due in May, unless there are slipups on the fiscal or external front.